The Diyawadena Nilame of Asgiriya and Malwatte did not have the physical strength to snatch two baby elephants to please his masters the Mahanayakas of Asgiriya and Malwatte because the parents though their legs have been chained have resisted with all they can to prevent the abduction of their loved ones. These are babies that have not been weaned and still depended on their mothers’ milk. If the legs of the parents had not been chained and he fought the parents on level ground he knew that he would have been crushed to pulp and therefore out of cowardice he sought the help of the minister for Wild Life to commit an illegal act involving inhuman cruelty.
The minister in turn may have thought that he had the power to aid and abet in an illegal act and presumably summoned the help of the police. It must have been when even the police failed that he called the army and finally the entire bunch of cowards together snatched the babies from their mothers.
Ifham Nizam reports in the front page of the Island of 28th July 2009 that it is illegal for any animal under the age of five years to be handed over from Pinnawala to outsiders. Moreover according to Environmentalist Lawyer Jagath Gunawardene no animal can be transferred to any place other than the National Zoological Gardens without a permit from the Wildlife Department.
Also according to him depriving the young of mother’s milk could be termed cruelty under the Animal Ordinance Section 3 and 4. According to experts the babies must be weaned carefully and trained before being removed and that the training the babies get from their mother was very essential for their well being.
The report concludes by saying that an official of the Pinnawala had said that the mother elephants were still crying and they too were slightly injured in their attempts to save their young ones. Elephants do not cry the way humans cry but they have their own ways of expressing grief that the Diyawadena Nilame seems to enjoy which the officials of Pinnawala can recognize.
The snatching must have been so violent that according to the report one baby had broken a tusk and the other has also been injured. After the robbery the Diyawadena Nilame has locked up the babies in his garage and one of them has charged a motor cycle in the garage and broken it.
Many questions arise and among them we like to know whether the police have authority to commit an illegal act on the orders of any minister. Who in the police has given the order to act and is that within the police constitution? Similarly who is the army officer who gave the order to commit the same crime and is that also within the constitution of the army? Why is the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) silent on this? Have they got anything called a backbone other than their stupid arrogance that has put off all their supporters to such an extent that none of them will vote for them if they were to come alone as a party?
On the basis of the above evidence we the public expect the government to vigorously prosecute every individual against whom the above charges can be proved. If the government does not, it will deeply sour the elated feelings of the entire nation that we have as a result of the success of bringing together under one flag all ethnic and religious groups in the firm conviction and belief that there is justice and fairness to all in this Buddhist society.
Just one last question about this Diyawadena Nilame. He I understand is elected by a board administering the two temples and he is paid a salary. Is that salary coming from the private estate income of the temples alone without the contributions of the public and any grant from the government? In that case he is answerable to the temples and the law of the land but if even a part of his salary has a public contribution then he is answerable to the public as well.
by L. Jayasooriya
– Asian Tribune –